Marc: Hi Allan. Primeur is known for its leadership in helping customers,
in every industry, to deliver real business benefits as they journey towards
successful implementation of SOA technology. Tell me more.

Allan: Primeur helps companies across a wide
spectrum of industries. We have customers, subsidiaries
and/or partners, across North & South America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the
Middle East and Africa. As we continue to expand our operations, we have found a
growing need for the management of file transfer across all industry sectors.
Primeur specializes in Managed File Transfer, End-to-End Security, File Transfer
Governance solutions, and extending those capabilities to the WebSphere
Integration portfolio. Our solutions offer the ability to extend the SOA
environment to include internal and external file transfers. Primeur solutions
are a key component in an SOA environment, they offer our clients the ability
to provide data as well as transport level security, improve business
efficiency, and become a more agile company.

Marc: Primeur was
positioned as a visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Managed File
Transfer, released September 18, 2009. What does this mean to Primeur?

Allan: Primeur believes placement in Gartner’s
Magic Quadrant confirms our recent growth in North America, Europe and Asia
Pacific regions. This successful growth is due primarily to our breadth of
vision, especially in regard to innovation, understanding the market, and the strategic
direction of our products. We are very pleased that Gartner recognizes us in
the Magic Quadrant. We feel this recognition is for both our expertise in what
is required by today’s customers, and in our vision of Managed File Transfer being
much more than simply managing a protocol. The Magic Quadrant can be found on http://www.primeur.com/news_events/.

Marc: Primeur has been a key
sponsor atIBM's Impact event since we first began this event.
Impact 2010 will be held in May in Las Vegas and once again, we're looking
forward to seeing Primeur featured, this time as part of the zZone. Why is this
an important event for Primeur?

Allan: It is an important event
for Primeur since it represents a single event with visitors from many industries.
The visitors to this event represent a group that will be interested in
solutions specific to zSystems. This provides Primeur the perfect platform to
show our latest offerings. Although we have offerings which operate across platform,
we will be participating in the zZone this year. Primeur’s first customers,
over 20 years ago, were financial industry mainframe users. We and they have
continued to believe in the mainframe and have invested accordingly; making
sure that our software remains optimized for z/OS and z/Linux. We work closely
with our customers to ensure they continue to achieve an excellent return on investment
from both a technology and functionality perspective.

Marc: What else will we be
seeing from Primeur at Impact?

Allan: We have a booth in
the zZone where visitors can hear about our solutions and see a demonstration
of our latest software. We will also be leading a Birds of a Feather session
entitled, “How Important is it to Define, Regulate, Audit, and Manage Your File
Transfer System?” Our aim here is to encourage visitors to bring their thoughts
on the matter and be prepared to share them. This session is designed to be
very interactive and should be a great learning experience for all.

Marc: What is new that our readers should know
about?

Allan: We will also be
showing our new Spazio Ad Hoc solution, at our booth. Primeur recently announced
this important new solution. Spazio Ad Hoc can securely manage the occasional
exchange of files of any size using either an email client, web application, or
direct from a backend application. It includes all of the features of a
traditional Secured Managed File Transfer system, with no change required to
the configuration of email servers and the users email experience remains the
same since it is a server side solution. The solution provides visibility, security and control
for files transferred and, importantly, is easy to configure. If you are
interested in more details prior to the event you can find them on our web site
http://www.primeur.com/news_events/.

Marc: What’s the best way for potential clients to
find out more about Primeur solutions – or even take a test drive with some of
your offerings?

Allan: At Impact
the best way would be to come to our booth in the zZone. We will be happy to
discuss the benefits of our solution and how they can be integrated into a
customer’s environment. We will also have a short slide presentation and demo
of some of the capabilities available. Outside of Impact, we do offer a free assessment
service to help clients understand what their current file transfer environment
looks like. We find that many clients do not understand the true extent of the
files being transferred across their company. Knowing how many files, how big
they are, where they came from, where they are going, and any failures is very
important. Once clients understand where they are today, they are better able
to form a modernization plan that will carry them into the future.

Marc: Great talking to you, Allan. Readers and IMPACT 2010 attendees, don't forget to check out
Primeur at the Impact 2010 zZone.

Primeur, a multi-national company, is a leader in Governed Managed File Transfer and End-to-End Security solutions. Primeur also offers total integration with WMQ File Transfer Edition, further extending its specialisation in adding value to WebSphere with SOA enabled products and services solutions.

Allan Somerville Brown:

Allan leads the Primeur business in the North America. Before joining Primeur, Allan worked for several years at IBM. Throughout his career within the company, he covered various management roles and worked on major customer accounts during his time as the world-wide sales leader for the IBM WebSphere MQ software family of messaging and connectivity products. Allan was responsible for driving the MQ business to meet its revenue targets.

Q1. Primeur has been providing the System z Community with solutions and services for nearly 20 years. Why do customers turn to Primeur year after year?

A1. Primeur’s first customers, over 20 years ago, were mainframe users. We and they have continued to believe in the mainframe and have invested accordingly, making sure that our software remains optimised for the mainframe, now z/OS and z/Linux. We work closely with our customers to ensure they continue to achieve an excellent Return on Investment both technologically and functionally – for instance our recent File Services Governance solution for providing platform independent audit, compliance and governance for corporate wide file transfers regardless of protocol.

Q2. We continue to see Primeur expanding globally, at a time when the economy is extremely challenging. What’s your secret?

A2. Yes, despite a difficult economic climate, our company continues to grow. We believe that there is a tremendous business opportunity in the market in which we operate not only for helping our customers reduce operational expenses, but also in bringing batch processes into a SOA environment. When we think of SOA, we generally tend to think of on-line transaction processing. However, most of the enterprise mainframe environments use batch systems so our customers are asking "when I transform to SOA, what about the batch applications and systems?" Primeur’s experience with mainframes, batch file processing and WebSphere puts us in an ideal position to help answer that question.

This makes it an opportune moment also for Primeur to invest in the future. Earlier this year, we announced the expansion of Primeur in the United Kingdom, and we opened a new subsidiary in the Asia Pacific region (Sydney, Australia) Since May, I’ve had the pleasure of serving as the Director of Primeur’s first North American office, located in Virginia.

Q3. Why is being part of Destination z a valuable community association for Primeur?

A3. Being part of destination z is a very valuable community as it affords Primeur access to the wide experience through collaboration with customers and IBM. Perhaps the best way to understand fully the value of System z and value of destination z is to watch the video, recorded at Impact 2009 by Peter Sedgwick our director of the new UK company. This can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pHV04EsiaM

Q4. Why is System z important for Primeur’s customers?

A4. Batch/Legacy applications are best run on system z as it is optimized for handling these applications and the way that these applications communicate is through files.

Very large numbers of files are processed and sent/received every day. The increasing focus on securing sensitive data means that systems z’s outstanding security capabilities make system z the ideal platform for processing files. Customers can take full advantage of system z to process and secure the key data used to run their business, safe in the knowledge that Primeur’s software will securely deliver the files to the desired destination reliably and in a timely manner. Primeur’s Governance solution determines when the batch file is ready to be sent and tracks it to its ultimate destination, thus ensuring audit and compliance. One can’t run a business without secure and reliable processing of data – the combination of system z and Primeur’s software ensures that customers can rely on the efficiency, accuracy, and timeliness of their core data processing.

Thank you to Allan for sharing his thoughts. Join me again when I continuing blogging on my journey to Destination z!

I would like to extend a warm welcome to an exciting new member of our IBM Destination z community, Pirean Limited. Pirean is based in the United Kingdom and has recently expanded their business in System z with focus on Security and Service Management. Pirean's offerings include Consultancy Services, IBM Software, and Pirean Software.

For more information on Pirean and what they offer please visit their website or contact their Senior Consultant and System z Lead, Alan Harrison (Alan.Harrison@pirean.com.

IBM Destination z wants your expertise! Submit a mainframe-related tip
or technique in our community forum for a chance to win the first Destination z Challenge. First prize is a collectible LEGO model of a zEnterprise 114!

Greetings from Boston where I am at the 2010 IBM System z Technical University. Yesterday was a great day with over 800 attendees at the conference. The exhibit hall was very busy last night with attendees flooding in to see IBM's new zEnterprise and all of the firms in the exhibit hall that support solutions on the platform. There are many IBM Destination z members in the exhibit hall this year, including six who have sponsored our zZingo card promotion. At this conference attendees who visit our six sponsors can earn an on-site chair massage and a chance to win a new iPad. zZingo card sponsors include: Hostbridge Technologies, 21st Century Software, Intellimagic, Mainline Information Systems, Trident Services and Vicom Infinity.

Other Destination z members at the show are PSR, Novell, Red Hat, IBM Systems Magazine, zJournal/Mainframe Executive, Cloud Compiling, Velocity Software, Interskill Learning, PKWARE, Innovation Data Processing are a few I have seen. Also I have seen members of H&W and Progress Software at this event.

If you are here in Boston, stop by the IBM Destination z booth (94) and say hello!

IBM and SHARE will be conducting a Mainframe Career Exploration Day at
the Boston SHARE event on Wednesday August 4th. The event is open to
High School and College students, and faculty members. If you know any
students or educators in the Boston area, please share this URL with
them to download the invitation (which will be active for 1 week).
Questions can be addressed to me!

Thanks for helping to spread the word and help generate interest in
Mainframe Careers.